Was it a power trip? Yes. He gave humans pleasure and took nothing but sustenance. It was a trade he could live with. The woman gave her blood freely and received sexual pleasure and financial compensation in return.
She was exhausted by the time he finished feeding. She slid down to the cushions and tried to lay her head on his lap, but Ben nudged her onto a pillow.
The woman looked up. “Nothing?”
“I’m fine.” He licked his lips and ran a thumb over them. He couldn’t abide dried blood on his lips. “Would you like some tea?”
She nodded.
“I’ll order some.” He looked back across the courtyard, but he didn’t see his watcher or her guard. A sweep of his eyes around the dark veranda proved fruitless.
She was gone.
“Sir?”
Ben looked up to see the server standing next to him. He gestured to the woman next to him. “She needs tea.”
“Of course.” The server held out a tray. “The lady left this for you.”
A cream-colored linen envelope sat on the tray. On the front was written a single name.
Vecchio. Not Rios, the name he was currently traveling under.
Ben snatched the envelope from the tray. “Thank you.” He unfolded his legs and rose to his feet. “I’m finished here,” he said to the woman. “Have a good night.”
“You’re leaving?”
Ben walked away without answering, the letter burning his fingers. He walked to the center of the courtyard where the fire was burning and opened it. Three words were written in the center of the page in thick blue ink.
Answer your mail.
No name. No address. No way of contacting the sender.
Ben read it again, looked at the paper through the light of the fire, and held it up to the heat, feeling a surge of satisfaction when the fire revealed a hidden message.
Seriously, Mr. Vecchio. Answer your fucking mail.
A smile threatened the corner of his mouth. He looked at the handwriting and committed it to memory, then threw the envelope and the letter into the fire.
* * *
“Cara, what’s the time in New York?”
He didn’t need to shout for his digital assistant to hear him. Cara was an artificial intelligence program designed for vampires who couldn’t use more delicate human technology without shorting it out.
“It is 12:46 in the afternoon,” Cara said.
“Place video call.” He sat on the chaise next to the bed in his reinforced room and opened the heavy cover of his tablet.
“Encryption on?”
“Yes.”
He missed the sleek electronics he’d used as a human, but vampire amnis was electrical in nature, a current running beneath the skin of vampires that connected them to their elements and interfered with modern electronic signals. For vampires to use technology, heavy cases and voice controls were essential.
“Video calling with encryption activated.” Cara’s smooth tones were as familiar as a friend’s. “What number?”
“Chloe, mobile.”
“You want to video call Chloe on her main mobile device. Is that correct?”
“Correct.” He kicked up his legs and stretched.
The vampire body was different from the human one. On many levels, it was far more sensitive, but in other ways his nerves felt dulled. He no longer felt any soreness from a hard run or physical exertion. His muscles did not experience the minute tears that broke them slowly to be built up stronger with recovery. He was frozen in the exact physical state he had been two years before.
His lungs didn’t pump when he climbed the side of a building or lifted something heavy. In fact, he didn’t need to breathe at all.
But the brush of a callus against his skin could be excruciating. The temperature of the wind cut through his body like knives or caressed him like warm silk.
An electronic chime told him the call was connecting. He carefully arranged his face to speak to his assistant in New York.
“Ben?” Chloe’s smiling face filled the screen. Her curly hair was tied back in a colorful scarf, and she was sitting outside in the sun. “Hey! I didn’t expect to hear from you today. I’m having lunch with Arthur.”
The small designer poked his head into the viewing screen and Ben angled his head so his transformed eyes weren’t obvious.
“Come home!” Arthur said. “Everyone misses you like crazy. I know you and Tenzin had a fight, but stop being stubborn or you’re going to give me wrinkles, and you know I’m too beautiful for wrinkles.”
Ben couldn’t help but smile. “I miss you too, Arthur.”
Chloe shoved him away. “Are you calling for work?”
“Yes, but nothing related to a current client.” He took a deep, unnecessary breath and did the thing he’d been avoiding for two full years. “Do you still have my last mailing address?”
Chloe’s eyebrows went up. “Yes.”
The last mailing address she had was directed to a box that was regularly delivered by courier to Penglai Island, the home of Ben’s vampire sire.
“I think you need to send my mail.”
2
The first time Ben traveled to Penglai Island, he’d been a resentful human, pissed off at his vampire partner for dragging him into another job where he might end up dead.
In the end, he hadn’t been killed, but only because Tenzin had taken it upon herself to fly his mortally wounded body to her sire and had convinced Zhang to change him.
How? He still didn’t know.
This time, instead of coming by boat, he flew through the air toward the golden jewel of an island set in the fog-covered sea. He was met by his sire’s guards at the air perimeter of the island, and the guards stopped and bowed midair when they realized who approached.
“Master Vecchio.” A guard with a familiar face moved toward him. “This marshal greets you with joy on your return. The wind is strong tonight.”
“The wind is very strong.” Ben searched his mind for the guard’s name. “Duan Liping, it’s good to see you again. Is my sire well?”
The man beamed. “The elder is in excellent health.”
“Thank
